Cozy Christmas Murder Read online

  “Maybe your dinner accidentally got deleted from her calendar, that stuff happens all the time. Did you call her at work?”

  Linda shook her head. “Oh no, I didn’t want to bother her at work.”

  “Well, I’m sure she’ll get back to you soon enough. If you’re really worried about it, check out the parking lot at City Hall and see if you see her car.”

  “That’s a really big parking lot.”

  “Yeah, I suppose it is. I wouldn’t worry about it. She’ll call when she gets a chance, I’m sure. Maybe she didn’t feel well or something. I know I don’t get on the phone if I’m sick. I turn it off and throw it in the drawer until I feel better.”

  “You don’t suppose that…” Linda trailed off.

  “What?” Avery prompted.

  “Well, I mean…you don’t think that Janet might be…involved?” she leaned in close and spoke in a low voice.

  “You know her better than I do, but no, it certainly didn’t seem like she was the murdering type.”

  “There’s a type?” Linda’s eyebrows shot up her forehead.

  “No,” Avery laughed. “That’s just a figure of speech. I think Janet is a decent human being who would never dream of killing anyone, much less act on the impulse.”

  “Oh, good. Yeah, that’s what I think too,” Linda seemed troubled.

  “What is it?” Avery stopped walking.

  “What if this was personal? What if one of us is next?” she whispered, color draining from her face.

  “I think that’s a leap,” Avery shook her head. “This was most likely a random thing. A robbery gone wrong, maybe. I’m sure that we have nothing to worry about.”

  “Except maybe you,” Linda’s eyes locked on hers.

  “What do you mean?” a sudden chill swept through Avery.

  “I mean, what if somebody puts together the fact that things were just fine, and then the day after you come back to town, one of your arch enemies dies?”

  “Oh that’s just silly. Anyone who knows me knows that I wouldn’t have the gumption to do something like that. Besides, I didn’t have any animosity toward Rosanne. I didn’t even know her anymore.”

  “She wasn’t very nice to you.”

  “Things like that don’t really bother me,” Avery shrugged.

  “Well, apparently they bothered somebody in her life. Hey, I never got to try the food at the new Indian place, since Janet didn’t show up. Do you want to go sometime this week?”

  “Sure, I love Indian food. Try inviting Janet again too, maybe she’ll make it this time.”

  “Hopefully,” Linda replied, climbing back onto her bike. “Enjoy your walk, I have to head home.”

  “Good seeing you,” Avery waved.

  “You too,” Linda pushed the bulb of her bike horn and it tooted a farewell.

  **

  Avery walked so long on the beautiful Fall day that she found herself downtown. Taking a deep breath and letting her feet carry her so that she couldn’t change her mind, she walked into the Chamberlain, looking for Kerry.

  “Hey stranger,” he greeted her from behind the bar. “The usual?”

  “Uh, no thanks.”

  Avery looked around, noting that there was only one other patron in the bar at this time of day, and he was munching peanuts and watching some sort of sporting event on the television. Moving closer to the bar, she spoke softly so that she wouldn’t be overheard.

  “Do you have a second?”

  “Sure, what’s up?” Kerry put his towel down and leaned over the bar toward her, his brow furrowed at her obvious discomfort.

  “This is so awkward,” she sighed.

  “I’m a master of making situations awkward, trust me, we’re nowhere near peak awkwardness,” he assured her with a mischievous grin.

  “It’s just…my mom had this crazy idea…” she began, not really knowing how to ask a most embarrassing question.

  “You have my attention…” he prompted.

  “So, I got this package today. It wasn’t mailed, it was just sitting on the porch…is this ringing any bells?” Avery bit her lip, her cheeks flushed.

  “Should it?”

  She sighed again. “I have no idea. Look, I’m just going to be straight up about this,” she scrunched her eyes shut for a second, then opened them again, determined to be an adult. “Did you leave a present for me on my parents’ porch?” she blurted, relieved at finally having asked. It had been on her mind since she started the walk. Avery hoped that she hadn’t given him the wrong idea by going to the diner with him.

  “No…” Kerry looked totally confused. “Was I supposed to? Is it your birthday or something?”

  Avery barked out a relieved laugh. “No, it isn’t. I just got a present today and I have no idea who it’s from.”

  “Lucky you. Well, let me just tell you right now, if you ever feel compelled to leave gifts on my porch, I will happily accept them. Particularly if they’re edible,” he teased.

  “I’ll keep it in mind,” Avery chuckled.

  “Ready for a drink now?” Kerry picked up the towel and swung it like a feather boa, cracking her up.

  “Nope, I can’t. Gotta go write,” she raised a hand in farewell, heading for the door.

  “Make me a character,” he called after her.

  “You’re already a character, Kerry,” she laughed, closing the door behind her.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  * * *

  Satisfied that her book was nearly halfway done, Avery decided to do some grocery shopping. It would make life easier on her mom, and it would give her the chance to get out of the house for a bit and out into the world. She became a recluse when she wrote, and knew that forcing herself to go out and interact with other humans was a good practice. Sometimes she wondered if she should just get a dog to talk to, and call it good, but for now, she’d grocery shop amongst humanity.

  She was lightly squeezing tomatoes in the produce section when she caught sight of Janet, over by the bananas. Tossing a tomato in a plastic bag, she steered her cart toward her classmate.

  “Hi there,” she greeted Janet with a smile.

  “Oh, hi Avery,” the woman seemed distracted.

  “Linda was worried about you. She said that she hadn’t heard from you in a few days.”

  “That’s because I was in jail. Ever been to jail? It’s not a fun thing,” she muttered.

  “Jail? Whatever for?” Avery was astonished.

  Janet selected a bundle of bananas and put them in her cart.

  “Killing Rosanne, supposedly.”

  “What? Why would anyone think that you would do such a thing?”

  “The police thought it because when they came over to question me, they found Rosie’s bloody scarf on my front porch.”

  Avery’s mouth dropped open. “How did it get there?” she whispered, looking around to see if anyone was close enough to overhear their conversation.

  “That’s what I’d like to know. Apparently, someone set me up,” she shrugged.

  “Were you formally charged?”

  Janet shook her head. “No, they were holding me, hoping that I’d confess, I guess. The only “evidence” that they had was the scarf, so they couldn’t press charges, but now they’re watching my every move. It’s ridiculous. There’s an unmarked car outside right now, and there’s another one across the street from my house. They’ll probably be knocking at your door soon, now that you’ve been seen with me.”

  “Oh Janet, that’s awful. You’ve gotta find out who really did this so that you can clear your name.”

  “I’m a government paper pusher, not a detective. I don’t have the slightest idea how to find a murderer, particularly when I’m under constant surveillance.”

  Avery nodded. “Let me see what I can find out.”

  “Good luck with that,” Janet sighed. “Everybody knows everything about everyone in this town until there’s a murder committed, then nobody knows anything.”

&nbs
p; “Hang in there,” Avery squeezed her arm. “Linda and I are going to the new Indian place downtown tomorrow night. We’d love to have you join us.”

  “I’ll give it some thought. Mostly what I’m inclined to do right now is hunker down at home and wait for the storm to blow over,” Janet admitted.

  “Well, let me know.”

  “Will do.”

  “Hey, strange question for you,” Avery detained her classmate just a bit longer.

  “Yeah?”

  “What color was the scarf?”

  Janet gave her a funny look.

  “You’re right, that is a strange question. What difference does it make?”

  “Just curious.”

  “It was pink, and it had little yellow butterflies on it.”

  “Okay, thanks,” Avery raised her hand in farewell.

  Janet headed for the checkout, and Avery continued shopping. This all seemed familiar somehow, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on why. Probably just her overactive imagination taking over. Shrugging it off and heading home, Avery found her mother in the living room surrounded by boxes.

  “What on earth are you doing?” she grinned at her mom’s rather frazzled appearance. Her always-tidy hair was ruffled, there was a cobweb on the sleeve of her sweater, and she had a piece of packing tape stuck to the side of her shoe.

  “It’s the week after Thanksgiving,” her mother stated, as though that explained it all.

  “Okay…?” Avery raised her eyebrows, waiting for her mother to continue.

  “We always put up the tree and decorate the week after Thanksgiving,” Doris blew a stray lock of hair from her cheek.

  “Oh, right! I’d forgotten that,” Avery smiled fondly, loving the fact that the traditions she grew up with were still in full swing at her parents’ house.

  “I’m opening up all the boxes of decorations so that when your father gets home with the tree, we’ll be able to get started.

  “Sounds good. Want me to make cocoa?”

  Doris glanced at her watch. “It’s a tad early for that. Let’s have cocoa after dinner and we can sneak a touch of butterscotch schnapps into it,” she suggested with a grin.

  “Now you’re talking.”

  Avery put the groceries away, then helped Doris sort out the Christmas decorations, which brought back so many wonderful childhood memories. She felt warm and safe and loved for the first time in a very long time.

  **

  Avery was running early, but that was nothing new. She’d grown up in a household where if you weren’t ten minutes early, you were considered late, and pathological punctuality was a habit that she’d embraced in adulthood. Linda was meeting her at the Indian restaurant at seven, Janet had said that she’d try to make it, and Shelly, whom they’d invited earlier that day, said that she might join them for dessert, depending upon how her three year old, who’d been battling a cold, was feeling.

  She’d parked in the parking garage, and though the restaurant was just around the corner, she felt oddly vulnerable, and decided to keep her car keys in her hand. A tingle of fear started at the base of her spine and crept upward, raising the hairs on her neck. The sun had set more than an hour ago, and the parking garage was largely deserted in the darkening gloom. Avery looked carefully all around her, wanting to know that no one was lurking about, and hurried toward the exit onto the street.

  “Hey!” a man stepped out from behind a concrete support, directly in her path. He smelled of alcohol and something more earthy that she didn’t want to think about.

  Averting her eyes and stepping to the side to walk around him, she felt like a heel, ignoring him as he rambled on about needing change so that he could buy a bus ticket. Heart beating fast, she kept her head down and walked briskly toward the restaurant. When she rounded the corner, and the door was in sight, Avery caught her breath and her knees nearly buckled. Stopping dead in her tracks, her mouth fell open into an agonized “O” of shock.

  “Rob?” she whispered, far enough away that she knew he couldn’t possibly hear her.

  He carried a large bag of take-out from the restaurant where she’d soon be meeting her friends. As though he’d heard her, his head turned mechanically, and he looked right at her. Or was it him? She couldn’t be sure of it, in the darkness that surrounded them. He did a double-take, then hurried in the opposite direction.

  Feeling shaky, Avery leaned against the building, a stray breeze riffling the hair on her brow.

  “Avery, are you okay?” she heard dimly, a few minutes later.

  Linda’s face swam into view.

  “You look awful, are you sure that you’re up to this tonight?” her concern was evident.

  “Uh, yeah. Yes, of course I am,” Avery took a deep breath and shook off the lingering horror at having seen the man who had betrayed her…or his Champaign doppelganger at least.

  “Did something happen?” Linda asked, holding the door open.

  “I’ll tell you about it when we get seated,” Avery promised, the warmth and delicious scent of the restaurant enveloping her.

  She’d be safe here, among friends. It probably hadn’t been Rob that she’d seen. It was probably just some other guy, innocently getting Indian take-out. Or was it…?

  **

  “Well, I think we should probably order,” Linda remarked, after Avery related the story, over drinks, of having seen someone whom she thought might be her ex-husband. “It doesn’t look like the other two are going to make it.

  The text tone on Avery’s phone went off just then.

  “It’s Shelly. Her little girl has a temp, so she won’t be here,” she confirmed.

  “Well, I just texted Janet, but I don’t think she’ll show anyway. When I talked to her on the phone, she sounded kind of bitter,” Linda said sadly.

  “I can understand why she’d be upset about going to jail for a few days, but why do you say she sounded bitter?”

  “I think that she feels like the rest of us told the police that she was mean to Rosanne, and that’s why they arrested her.”

  “I didn’t say anything like that…did you?” Avery asked.

  “Nope, but maybe Shelly or Deedee did,” Linda guessed.

  “Have you heard from Deedee at all?”

  “Nope. I forgot to ask her to join us tonight. Should we text her?” Linda asked, chagrined.

  “No, it’s too short notice, and I want to order because I’m starving,” Avery admitted. “I’ll get in touch with her tomorrow, I could probably use a makeover,” she smiled.

  “Nah, you were always one of those people who managed to look amazing even without makeup,” Linda commented, distracted by the menu.

  “Oh honey, clearly you’ve never seen me in the morning,” Avery giggled, then turned her attention to the menu.

  The two enjoyed a delicious dinner, making certain to keep the conversation light, then went their separate ways.

  Avery walked quickly back to her car, chilled and uncharacteristically nervous.

  “Stop being ridiculous,” she muttered to herself, her mouth covered by a thick scarf that Doris had made for her.

  When she got to her car, she instinctively knew that something was wrong, before she ever got into it. Approaching cautiously, moving the fluffy neck of her coat away from her ears trying to catch even the slightest sound, she switched on the flashlight app on her phone and shone the beam into the backseat, hoping like crazy that the homeless man she’d encountered hadn’t taken up residence there. The backseat was clear, but when she shined the light in the front part of the car, she gasped.

  Fingers shaking, she tapped off the flashlight beam and unlocked her phone to call 911.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  * * *

  Avery was trembling from head to toe as she sat across from Officer Vaughn Marsh in an interrogation room. Her car had been impounded so that it could be searched thoroughly, and she’d been placed in the back of a squad car to travel the few blocks downtown to the police
station. There was a bracing cup of black coffee in front of her, but as badly as her heart was racing, she figured that drinking coffee wouldn’t be a smart idea.

  “Start at the beginning,” Marsh instructed.

  Avery had to wonder if the man ever smiled. Not that this was a situation in which anyone would smile, but if he would at least be more conversational, maybe she wouldn’t constantly feel as though she might either throw up or faint.

  “I received a box a few days ago, and…”

  “How many days ago?” Marsh interrupted.

  “I don’t know…two or three maybe?”

  “Can you be a bit more precise?” his face was like stone.

  “Well, let’s see…today is Tuesday, and we put up the tree on Saturday, and I think that the box came the day before, so I want to say it was a Friday,” Avery frowned, thinking.

  “It was last Friday?”

  “Yes, I think so.”

  “But you’re not sure.”

  “I’m almost positive.”

  “Fine, go on,” Vaughn’s eyes bored into her as though the man could see her soul and found it vaguely suspicious.

  “Anyway, so I saw the box, and it had my name on it, but it wasn’t written, it was glued on, using letters cut from magazines.”

  “And you didn’t find that odd?” Marsh probed.

  “I didn’t really think much about it,” Avery flushed, feeling unreasonably guilty.

  “Go on.”

  “I opened the box, and there was a bunch of pink tissue paper, so I pulled it apart and saw a necklace resting on a bed of fresh rose petals.”

  “How do you know that they were fresh?”

  “Because they hadn’t started to turn brown yet.”

  “What did the necklace look like?”

  Avery moved her scarf, which she’d kept on because the interrogation room seemed to be refrigerated, aside, revealing the necklace. She’d noticed that Linda kept glancing at it over dinner, but had forgotten to tell her the story about how she’d gotten it.